Harry's Great Secret
by parselmagic
Summary: My first attempt at writing, please Read and Review! Obviously, contains more characters than are listed. Manipulative!Dumbledore Animagus!Harry Powerful!Harry Ravenclaw!Harry / light Ron!Bashing P.S. Rating is cautionary, I'd rather have too high of a rating than too low. ASSOCIATED POLL FOR THIS STORY IS NOW UP to select Harry's Girlfriend(s).
1. Chapter 1

**Harry Potter's Great Secret**

A fan-fiction-based story by parselmagic

(Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to J.K. Rowling)

A/N: some paragraphs might be a little bit on the long side, it is due to the fact I can't really tell where the best place would be to cut paragraphs off at.

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CHAPTER 1

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Harry Potter was a very unusual child. For one, he almost never cried. He had strange dreams, about flying motorcycles and also a scary man that shot green lights out all over the place. For another, he had no friends. His mean older cousin, Dudley, made sure of that by bullying anyone who even tried to talk with Harry; except if they were extremely rude and were calling Harry a freak, or other such nonsense. The reason that he could get away with doing this in the first place was that Dudley, and his parents, absolutely despised everything to do with Harry, but only put up with having him around so that they could use Harry as a personal slave, to further try to make Harry feel like the least loved person in the world, that even an orphanage wouldn't take an ungrateful freak like him in.

They made him cook all their meals, wash their laundry, sweep and mop the kitchen and bathrooms, vacuuming the rest of the house, making everyone's beds, dust everything, trim the bushes, mow the lawn, rake leaves, or shovel snow depending on season, weed the large garden and fence-line (by hand), scrub the toilets, do all the dishes, and in general, clean up for the entire household.

The only room he was allowed was a small cupboard under the stairs, carpeted, in which you couldn't even fit a normal sized mattress to sleep on. He was allowed to use the restroom once a day, a three minute shower (in pure cold water) once a week, and all he got for food was a few bites of whatever he could manage to sneak while cooking it for his mean relatives, due to the fact that they kept the refrigerator locked up the rest of the time. These extremely mean people knew he was a wizard, but they didn't want the young boy to find out about it, and had been utterly despicable towards him from the day he had been left on their doorstep when he was just a little over a year old, because his real parents had gotten killed by an evil wizard. Whenever Harry asked any questions about his real parents, he was always told that they had been driving while drunk, and got killed in a car crash, and told him to stop asking questions. On the morning of July 31st, 1985, however, Harry had the strangest feelings ever.

All of a sudden, his body started changing drastically. First, it changed into an owl, then a cat, a dog, a snake, a spider, a phoenix, and finally a dove, before Harry wondered what was going on, and it stopped. The reason for all these weird changes was because Harry was a natural-born multi-animagus, which meant he could change into any animal with just thinking about it. He realized that it was going to be a real advantage over his mean cousin, Dudley, and especially his aunt and uncle. Later that morning, when his aunt came to his cupboard to get him up, he had a brilliant idea to change into a spider and hide on the under-side of the stairs, so that he wouldn't have to do any chores. It was a lot better to be a spider than to have to do all those chores, he thought with a huge grin on his face.

He decided that he'd better change his sleeping habits so that he could sneak into the kitchen when his relatives were asleep, so that he wouldn't at least starve. After a few days of this, though, the Dursleys decided that he was doing something very strange so that he could get away without doing anything for them, and put a lock on the fridge so that at least the freak wouldn't be able to steal any more of their food. When Harry realized this, he knew that he was going to have to run away, but how in the world was he supposed to get food, or even if he did manage to get any, how was he going to cook it, when he was only five years old? For once he ran away, he knew his relatives wouldn't be allowing him back into the house to use the kitchen.

He finally decided to run away, and to use his hidden abilities so that he wouldn't starve. At around four o'clock, he transformed into a spider before leaving his cupboard so that the Dursleys wouldn't know about it, and went to the front door and out through the mail slot. He then went around the corner before he shifted into a cat, so that it would be easier to walk than if he was a spider; and less likely to get stepped on. He made his way towards Mrs. Figg's house, whom he knew couldn't resist any cats in need, and prepared to spend as much time there as he needed to finally formulate a plan. He arrived at her doorstep, transformed into a spider again, and climbed into her house through the mail slot. Once inside, he scurried down to the floor and hurriedly shifted into a cat so that nothing would happen. He then went to look for Mrs. Figg's other cats, so that he could get acquainted with them before it was time for dinner, and hopefully find some friends that way. On the way, he decided he'd better make up a pretend name for himself, just in case any of the other cats could do what he could, and thus reveal that he wasn't a real cat. He thought for a few moments, before deciding on the name Mittens, since his paws were a different color than the rest of his fur. He found the other cats, and introduced himself to them as Mittens, and said that his human just died a few days ago, and was absolutely starving. He found out that their names were Tibbles, Snowy, Tufty, and Mr. Paws. They were all very likable, and soon he was friends with all of them. At around six, Mrs. Figg came in from shopping, and Mittens came out from the cat room, meowing pitifully. She noticed that it looked very thin, and decided to contact her good friend, who also happened to be an animagus (although not a natural-born one, and thus could only change into a cat). She went over to the fireplace, threw in a little bit of powder, and said, "Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress, Hogwarts". Harry thought that this was a very strange occurrence, for he hadn't yet been told about wizardry. Professor McGonagall came to her fireplace, and asked, "What's wrong, Bella?"

"I've a new cat here, and he looks very hungry. Can you come talk to it and find out what its story is?" said Mrs. Figg.

"Sure thing, just give me a minute," replied Professor McGonagall. A minute later, the fireplace flared up green again, and a tall woman stepped through, gave Mrs. Figg a quick hug, and then asked where the new cat was. Mrs. Figg replied that she had just gotten home from shopping to find the new cat in with her other cats, apparently hungry and exhausted. She then told her to follow her, and she'd lead her straight to the new cat. Professor McGonagall transformed into her cat form so as not to shock the new cat by doing it in front of it. A few seconds later, Professor McGonagall was talking to Harry, as Mittens.

"Hello, what's your name?" Professor McGonagall asked.

"Mittens," replied Harry. "Are you another of the cats that lives here? I thought I had met them all already."

"No, Mittens, I'm not. I'm just doing the nice lady a favor and asking you what your name is, and why you're here"

"Oh, well, I'm here because my human died a few days ago, and I was starting to get extremely hungry. I found Tibbles outside, and he invited me in, saying that his human couldn't refuse to help cats in need. Please, I have kept trying to find a place since then," said Mittens.

"Oh, okay, let me explain it to the nice lady here, and I'm sure she won't mind," replied Professor McGonagall.

"How are you going to do that? I thought humans couldn't understand us cats," asked Mittens, genuinely curious.

"I'm actually a person that can turn into a cat, and vice versa. I'm simply going to change back into a human, and tell her that way," said Professor McGonagall.

"That must be a useful ability, with all these cats around here," Harry said.

"It is, especially when something happens, we can find out exactly what a cat wants to say instead of just having to guess," she replied. "I'm going to transform back now, and tell her what you said." And with that, she moved away, and transformed back into a tall lady who turned to Mrs. Figg and said "He says his name is Mittens, and that he's starved, due to the fact he hasn't gotten any food since his human died a few days ago. He wants someplace to stay that won't reject him, because he has tried to find at least someone to feed him anything since then."

"Wow, I never suspected he'd gone that long without food, or I'd have fed him even before calling on you. Now I'm going to go fix some food real fast while you tell him that he's welcome to stay here as long as he wants to. It won't be a problem to care for him, either," replied Mrs. Figg.

"Okay," Professor McGonagall replied, then transformed herself back into her cat figure once again. "Mittens, the nice lady is going to go fix you some food, and she's told me to tell you that you're welcome to stay here as long as you want, and that caring for you won't be a problem either."

"Wow, can you tell her thanks for me?" asked Harry hopefully.

"Sure thing, but then I need to get back to where I was before the nice lady called me," replied Professor McGonagall.

"Okay, thanks to you too, I don't know what I would have done without someone like you to translate what I was trying to communicate with her," Harry said.

Professor McGonagall changed back into her human form, went to tell Mrs. Figg that Mittens wanted to say thank you, and then said that she must get back. She then turned toward the fireplace, threw in some powder, walked into the fireplace, and shouted, "Deputy Headmistress's office, Hogwarts!"

Meanwhile, Mrs. Figg returned with a large saucer of milk and a huge pile of shredded turkey, ham, and cheese, and placed them on the floor in a separate room from where the cats normally ate, and said "Come along, Mittens, here's some food for you. You can eat as much as you want, but don't eat so much that you get sick, please."

Harry came running at the word food, and once he saw the huge pile, he looked up at Mrs. Figg questioningly, as if to ask if this was all for him, or if he had to share it with the other cats?

Mrs. Figg, upon seeing the look in the small cat's eyes, said, "I usually feed all the cats in a different room. However, since you're starving, I'm feeding you here until you get back to how you're supposed to look, since you look too thin for your body. You don't have to share any of this food at all."

With that, Harry darted to the plate and started to eat immediately. Meanwhile, at Hogwarts, in the headmaster's office, an alarm started to go off. Headmaster Dumbledore looked up confusedly at the alarm, then hurried over to it, and pressed his wand in the middle so that it would quit blaring. Then he went to the fire, and called for Professors McGonagall and Snape, and asked them to come up to his office immediately. Ten minutes later, both Professors had stepped through the fireplace and were in the headmaster's office, and were asking him what this was about. Headmaster Dumbledore offered them lemon drops, then sighed, and said, "It appears that Harry Potter has run away from the Dursleys. How long he'll live at this point in time, being only five years old, I am not sure. I'd like the both of you to go to the Dursleys, and find out exactly what's going on."

"Harry Potter? Running away? Sounds like he doesn't like it there," said Professor McGonagall. "I told you when we left him there that they were the worst sort of muggles imaginable, but you didn't listen.

"Why must I go? You know that I hated James, and Potter will likely be as arrogant and disrespectful as his father was," asked Professor Snape.

"You must remember, Severus, that Harry is also Lily's child, and I seem to recall that you were her friend long before she even met James," said Professor Dumbledore.

"Alright, but I don't see what good it will do. Lily's sister always hated me," Professor Snape answered. After this brief conversation, Headmaster Dumbledore walked over to the fireplace, took a small pinch of floo powder, and threw it into the fireplace, saying "Arabella Figg's house". Mrs. Figg came over to the fireplace, and asked the headmaster what was wrong. "Harry Potter seems to have run away from home, and I need to send Severus and Minnie through to ask the Dursleys what happened, and then to start searching for him. I would also like your help in searching, if that's alright," replied Dumbledore.

"Oh, no!" exclaimed Mrs. Figg. "Go ahead, send them through, and I'll help also." She then stepped back from the fire, to allow Professors McGonagall and Snape room to step out once they got through.

"We'll go and question the Dursleys first, as they aren't supposed to know you're watching out for Harry," said Professor McGonagall. "Then, if he hasn't shown up, we'll come back and let you know so that we can start the search. With that, the two professors left Mrs. Figg's house and headed down the street to where the Dursleys live, and rang the doorbell. Mrs. Dursley got up to go answer it, knowing that her husband and son were not going to want to get up from watching television to answer the door, especially when it wasn't even during commercials. When she opened the door, however, the first person she saw was Professor Snape, and she exclaimed, "You! What did you do to my sister, and why are you here? Isn't it enough that the good for nothing freak finally ran away? We had to put up with his nonsense for four years, not to mention the brat ran away a full week ago, just before he knew we were having a large party, which he was supposed to cook for. We had to pay good money to get food delivered, instead."

"A WEEK! EXACTLY HOW LONG WERE YOU GOING TO WAIT BEFORE REPORTING HIM MISSING? And just why were you planning on having him cook at all? After all, he's just barely five years old," interrupted Professor McGonagall. "We simply came to see if he had returned, and to find out if we could talk to him."

"Why would you want to talk to him? He's a good for nothing freak that's a burden to decent people everywhere. If you are able to find him, he needs to be punished severely for walking out on us, and making us actually do some cleaning! And as for how long we were going to wait, we were glad to be rid of the freak, except for the fact he was saving us some money and allowing us the freedom to do what we wanted!"

"What do you mean, making you do some cleaning? Surely you weren't making him do everything around here? He's much too young to have to take care of all the cleaning around here" interjected Professor Snape.

"What does it matter to you how we treat the boy? We put a roof over his head and feed him, and give him clothes isn't that enough to ask that he do some chores?" argued Mrs. Dursley.

"Just what chores were you talking about, besides cooking?" asked Professor McGonagall, icily.

"Oh the usual, doing dishes, sweeping and mopping the kitchen and bathrooms, vacuuming the living room and bedrooms, washing, drying, and ironing the clothes, taking care of the garden and mowing the lawn, and overall just making the place presentable for our guests, stuff like that. We weren't making him do too much, considering the cost of all the bills and clothes and food besides," sneered Mrs. Dursley.

"WHAT? YOU WERE USING HIM AS A SLAVE? NO WONDER HE RAN AWAY!" both Professor McGonagall and Snape exclaimed vehemently. "EVEN IF WE DO FIND HIM, YOU'LL NOT BE GETTING HIM BACK TO USE AS A SLAVE!"

"Fine, you can come in and take what he left in his cupboard, in case you manage to find him before he dies. We can finally use it as it was supposed to be used, not as a bedroom for an ungrateful freak!"

"WHERE? SURELY YOU CAN'T MEAN THAT YOU MADE HIM LIVE IN A CUPBOARD!" shouted Professor Snape. "YOUR OWN NEPHEW, LILY'S SON?" and with that, he pulled out his wand and transfigured Mrs. Dursley into a pig, and then proceeded into the living room where he transfigured Mr. Dursley and Dudley into pigs, too, just for the way they were treating Lily's son. Then he turned and told Professor McGonagall that they deserved it, and she readily agreed. They then took a look in the cupboard, where they saw a small mattress, a shelf with two toys, broken, and some markings on the wall that said **HARRY'S ROOM.**

Then they went back to Mrs. Figg's house, explained that Harry had been supposedly missing for two whole weeks, and that Professor McGonagall was going to start looking while Professor Snape went back and informed Dumbledore so that more people could be put onto a search party. After Professor Snape used the fireplace to return to Hogwarts, Professor McGonagall turned to Mrs. Figg, and asked if the new cat had gotten enough to eat. Mrs. Figg replied "Yes, at least for tonight, as I put down almost a whole pound of mixed ham and turkey, along with a little bit of cheese, and a large bowl of milk. He ate nearly all of it before curling up to go to sleep. I figured he needed to get a little more food as he had been going without for several days, as you told me earlier."

"Hold on, Mittens never did tell me exactly how long ago his human did die. I wonder if somehow Harry could have turned into a cat, although I don't see how at his age. I'm going to go ask him, before we start our search. It'll be a couple of minutes before Professor Snape and Headmaster Dumbledore can get a search party organized, anyway." And with that, she turned herself into a cat and set off to find Mittens, finding him in a corner with his head laying on his front paws. She gently pawed him, claws in, until he woke up. "Mittens, I just had another couple of questions for you," she said gently.

"What's going on?" Mittens replied.

"Well, you see, there was a boy that I knew that lived not far from here, that supposedly ran away. It just seemed a little strange that my friend Mrs. Figg happened to get a new cat shortly after the boy ran away. Now, if you are this boy, could you tell me, please? Even if you are, we won't make you go back to those horrid people," replied Professor McGonagall.

"Alright, yes, I am Harry, but could you not tell anyone that I can change into a cat? I don't want anyone to know in case I have to hide again later, please? It's a very good cover story, as even you didn't doubt it until you found out that I had ran away, right?" asked Harry hopefully.

"That's very true, and we don't need to alert everyone to your ability to hide if you feel the need arises. However, we need to be able to work something out, since Mrs. Figg knows about you in your cat form, she'd wonder where you went if you suddenly disappeared again, so can we at least tell her, if she promises to keep it a secret?" asked Professor McGonagall.

"Well, okay, if it's just her, and if she promises to not tell anyone," said Harry. "I'll go ahead and change back into myself now, so that we can go tell her." And with that, he got up and changed back into Harry Potter. They then went into the other room, and explained why he had run away, and why he was trying to hide out as a cat. Mrs. Figg promised not to tell anyone about it, and then after about five more minutes, the flames in the fireplace turned green. Professor Snape asked why they were just sitting there, as he couldn't quite see Harry sitting on the other side of Mrs. Figg, and she replied that Harry had been found a couple of streets away, so as to protect the secret. And that since he had not really had much to eat, it would probably be best if he got an examination from Madam Pomfrey, and that he would come through with Professor McGonagall in a minute.

"Excuse me, but what do you mean by going through?" wondered Harry.

"Well, you see, people can, with a certain powder, use fireplaces to travel from one place to another, as long as both ends are connected, and you speak very clearly what you want your destination to be. I will be able to assist you with this, as it's your first time," replied Professor McGonagall.

"Don't the flames burn you?" asked Harry.

"Not when we use this powder, as it's a special kind made for traveling through fireplaces," said Professor McGonagall. "If that's all your questions, are you ready to go?"

"Yeah, okay," Harry said, just a little bit frightened at the new method of traveling.

Professor McGonagall and Harry then stepped into the fire, where Professor McGonagall threw down a pinch of floo powder, and shouted "Hospital wing, Hogwarts!" and off they went in a swirl of green flames. Madam Pomfrey, wondering who could be using the fireplace at this time of the holidays (it being the a few weeks before school resumed again), came running over, to gasp at the small child that was with Professor McGonagall. Professor McGonagall said, "Madam Pomfrey, would you please do a full examination on this boy? I just rescued him from a full week period of him having run away, but he had a meal as it was deemed more important that he have some food than to get him checked out."

"Okay, come right this way" said Madam Pomfrey gently. When she got Harry laid down onto the nearest bed, she pointed her wand at Harry, and said "plenus examinacionem et print-sicco." After a few seconds, a piece of parchment started to come out of the end of her wand. The piece of parchment had the following information on it:

Patient Name: Harry James Potter

Age of patient: 5 years, 0 months, 9 days

Body Weight: 14.8 kg (28% underweight)

Body Height: 89 cm (24% under height)

Welts on 78.5% of body

Bruises on 59.7% of body

Signs of illness:

extremely malnourished (3 years, 8 months, 2 weeks)

Extremely dehydrated (3 years, 8 months, 2 weeks)

6 broken bones, not healed (2 years, 7 months, 3 weeks)

Fever, 40.9 degrees (3 days)

Beginning pneumonia (1 day)

Partially constipated (3 months, 2 weeks, 4 days)

Muggle flu (6 days)

Overall picture of health (scale 1-10): 3

"With this information, I have to insist that he stay here for at least two weeks, maybe longer," said Madam Pomfrey, "with complete bed rest, except for meals. Also, thank goodness it was found out now, instead of waiting another 6 years. Who knows, in another few days, he probably would have died."

"Alright, Poppy, but I must also let you know that when we went to verify why he had ran away, Albus having told us that fact, we found that they were using him as a slave, with only a very tiny cupboard as a bedroom, and the only bed he had was a mattress from a child's bed. When we found this information out, we transfigured the Dursleys into pigs, because of what they had done to Harry, and we don't really want that information to get out, as a punishment for this severe case."

"Yes, yes, Minnie, I completely understand your point. Let's just hope that Albus doesn't find out and change them back, so as to make the punishment most effective. I would suggest going back and changing them after a few days, though, so that they don't starve to death themselves. No matter how badly they treated Harry here, they don't really deserve to die. With this information, we can have them sent to Azkaban, hopefully, but I agree with the decision of punishing them for a few days as pigs, first. Now, it might be a good idea if you were to go and alert Albus that Harry has been found, so that he can call off the search party and so that he doesn't investigate himself."

"Quite right, Poppy. I'll do that now. Thanks for helping look after him." And with that, she set off to tell the headmaster that Harry had been found, and was being looked after. Gradually, Harry began to regain his strength and a little bit of height, but after a couple of weeks, it was clear that he still wasn't in a condition to allow him to be taken anywhere else, even if he had had someplace else to go, it being so close to time for school to start. After realizing this, she set up a small room off of the hospital wing so that she could take care of him, and set it to only allow Minerva, Harry, and herself through the doors, and to actually hide the door from everyone else, so that no questions would be asked. Finally, after being looked after for almost three whole months, he was deemed to be in the best condition possible, although he was still a little bit on the short side for his age. Minerva and Poppy got together to discuss what was going to happen to him, as he didn't really need constant care anymore, having had the rest of his problems taken care of. Minerva thought that it would be best if he were to stay there, as even though he wasn't getting contact with other children, he would otherwise be well looked after, at least for the time being. She figured that she would enroll him in a school next year, since it was too late for this year, and he would need to get schooling so that when it was time for him to come to Hogwarts, he would know what to do as far as reading, writing, and such. Poppy agreed with her, especially due to the fact that it would also allow him to be with other children his own age, but decided to teach him to read so that they could send books with him (disguised as ordinary books except for when he read them), so that he wouldn't be completely ignorant about magic as he most likely would have been had he been forced to stay at the Dursleys, who by this time, at least for his aunt and uncle, were in Azkaban for severe magical child abuse and neglect. Dudley had been sent off to an orphanage, as his Aunt Marge was too busy looking after her bulldog breeding to have to worry about raising a child on her own.

Harry proved to be a very fast learner, due to the fact that he had an eidetic memory. By the time he was in his last year of schooling before going to Hogwarts, he had already started on college level English and math, and had worked out so that his height had increased dramatically, now being at four feet 10 inches, which for a 10 year old is quite tall indeed, having not had any "growth spurts" yet. His weight was also adjusted according to his height, and he was in the middle of the range for his height, with it being pure muscle. He was able to run 12 miles without even getting tired, and on the days he didn't run he either lifted weights or went swimming, having learned how when he was six, just in case he happened to need the knowledge. He was in frequent contact with Minerva, who, having taken the initiative to look after him a lot better than the Dursleys ever even took care of Dudley (the spoiled brat), had kept him supplied with books that he would need to know for when he came to Hogwarts, and for Harry, having an eidetic memory, he was able to memorize the books quite quickly indeed. He wasn't able to actually practice the magic yet, not being 11 years old, but that was soon to change. By the time his 11th birthday had come around, he had memorized every single book that his school library had, and also the books for Hogwarts that didn't change over the years. When he got his Hogwarts letter, he had replied immediately and politely.

He then went to his Aunt Minnie's room (having mutually consented to call her this when in private only), since it was during the summer break, he stayed with her. He said, "Aunt Minnie, I just replied to my Hogwarts letter and I was hoping that you could take me to Diagon alley so that I can get the rest of my stuff for Hogwarts".

She replied with "Sure, just let me finish up this letter and send it off. I will be ready in 15 minutes."

"Ok, Aunt Minnie, I'll go wash up again so that I look my absolute best, and then wait for you in the living room."

After they both were ready, they used some floo powder and went to the Leaky Cauldron, and went off to Gringotts. When they got there, they proceeded to the head goblin's desk, where the head goblin said that something was _off_ about Harry compared to most children that they came into contact with, and offered to check out the reason(s) why that could be. They agreed, so they went into a side room and discovered that his magical power was reduced by 70%, and that he should take care of it right away so as not to cause problems with schooling. After the power drain was removed, they took a heritage test and found that he was the heir to not only the Peverells, the Flamels, Morgana Le Fay, and all four of the founders, but also to Merlin, and was in fact an Archmage. Surprised at this, they asked what the differences were between a wizard and an archmage, and the goblin explained it thus: on the lowest level were people that didn't have any ability to use magic, then the next step up were wizards. The following steps up (each step being the same distance from each other) were sorcerers, mages, grand mages, and finally arch mages. The last known arch mage was Merlin, and each of the four founders were grand mages. They also found out that Harry had the ability to cast any spell silently and without using a focus (more commonly referred to as a wand), but in order to keep up appearances, were recommended to get a wand shell (a wand without a magical core) as Harry's own magic would be constricted by any core that they could possibly obtain through any wandmaker. After making a withdrawal, Harry and Minerva set off to get his school supplies that hadn't quite gotten gathered up (and some further years of school texts so as to do some more studying). The first stop was to select a trunk that would enable him to haul everything he needed easily, and so selected a five compartment trunk that was voice activated, and used §Abra Cadabra§ as the password, in parseltongue, so that it would be next to impossible for anyone except him to open it. Next, they went to Flourish and Blotts and saw that they had a new item, which was an e-reader to make students' loads lighter instead of having to haul around books everywhere, which they also gave a 10% discount on any school book in e-reader format. They decided to get it, and all of the school books for all seven years (for all school subjects) on it. He also selected the ultimate dictionary for runes so that he could start learning runes; as well as the e-books on occlumency, as he figured that being able to prevent people from taking a peek into his mind was an excellent thing indeed.

Harry was hoping to have every subject memorized before starting school, so that he wouldn't have to spend as much time looking through the school text books. After getting done at the bookstore, they went to Ollivander's to get a wand without a core, thus surprising Ollivander, who upon hearing this, asked why, and was told that the Gringotts goblins had said that he was powerful enough so that the core would in fact limit his magical power rather than enhance it. That being said, all that was left was for Harry to select a wood to use, more for decoration than anything else. After spending twenty minutes looking through all the various possible choices, he made his decision and paid, a bright smile lighting up his face since he now had (for all appearances) the tool that would allow him to practice magic, and due to the fact that he didn't really need it, surprise his opponents if the need ever arose. After finishing up the shopping, he went to take a look in the Quidditch shop to see what was new since he had last visited. Since Minerva was there, he asked if he could get a new broom just in case he got picked for his house Quidditch team, and she relented, if he promised never to take it out of his trunk without permission from her otherwise, as the other students wouldn't know it was in there. Their final stop was at Madam Malkin's, where Harry got all his clothes and robes for school. Being done, they stopped for an ice cream before heading home. Once they got home, Minerva told Harry that although she knew that it technically wasn't allowed for children to do magic outside school before they turned 17, she was willing to make exceptions for him to study out of his first two years' material while she was at least in the house and awake so that if anything went wrong, she would be able to fix it immediately. Harry thought that this was a very generous suggestion, so he immediately agreed.

Harry devised a new schedule for the remainder of the time until he went off to school as follows:

7:30 – 8:15 breakfast

8:15 – 10:00 exercising, various activities

10:15 – 12:00 practical magic practice (various subjects)

12:15 – 1:30 potions practice

1:30 – 2:20 lunch

2:30 – 4:00 free time (no studying of any kind)

4:00 – 5:20 practical magic practice (various subjects)

5:30 – 6:15 dinner

6:20 – 8:30 reading school books that he hasn't read yet

8:30 – 10:45 free time (no studying of any kind)

11:00 – 7:30 bed

By following this schedule for the remaining 6 weeks between when he got the rest of his school supplies and when he was due to leave for Hogwarts, he completely memorized all his school books for all 7 years (having done most of this prior to getting the rest of the school things from Diagon alley, and was having no trouble with whatever spell he was trying to cast (though, as this was limited to the first two years' worth of schooling, wasn't quite as amazing had he tried spells from higher grades), and was quite well toned from having kept up with his exercises, for an 11 year old he looked quite good if it weren't for his unruly hair. That hair would not behave no matter what he did with it, it was as if someone had put a permanent sticking charm to his hair so that it would stay that way forever. On the last day before he was due to go to Hogwarts, he packed up his trunk as follows: in one compartment, he put all his clothes and his e-reader which contained all of the books that he would need for any school work that he needed so he didn't have to take all the heavy books around. In the second compartment went all his things for potions, having asked Minerva if she could stop in Diagon alley and get enough things to replenish his stock as he had used some things up while practicing. The third compartment was where he put his miscellaneous things, like his broom and a couple of posters to decorate around his bed when he got to school. The fourth compartment he had converted into a sitting room not unlike a common room, where he could go and spend some time by himself or invite friends for a private hideout. This was also where he was planning to do all his homework, so that no one else could copy his work while at school. He also left the last compartment unaltered at this point in time as he didn't know what he wanted it for.


	2. Chapter 2

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CHAPTER 2

A/N: **bold** lettering is excerpted from the book

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The next morning, Harry excitedly woke up around six o'clock, and decided to make breakfast for himself and his "Aunt Minnie", seeing as how the Hogwarts' elves would be providing cooked meals for them and everyone else while at school. Just as he was putting the finishing touches on breakfast, Minnie came into the kitchen and was surprised that Harry had cooked, but decided it would be foolish to cook something else when there was already something made. After the two finished their breakfast, Minnie complimented Harry on how excellent it was, and said that she would take care of the dishes since he had cooked, while he went ahead with his morning exercises before she took him to Platform 9¾. When they were ready, Minnie flooed Harry and his trunk to the platform then went on to Hogwarts so that she could get her things unpacked and get ready for the students to arrive that evening. Harry found a seat in an empty compartment on the train quickly and settled in to enjoy the ride.

**After a few minutes, he watched a red-haired family enter onto the platform and then he heard what they were saying. Their mother had just taken out her handker chief.**

"**Ron, you've got something on your nose."**

**The youngest boy tried to jerk out of the way, but she grabbed him and began rubbing the end of his nose.**

"_**Mum**_** — geroff." He wriggled free.**

"**Aaah, has ickle Ronnie got somefink on his nosie?" said one of the twins.**

"**Shut up," said Ron.**

"**Where's Percy?" said their mother.**

"**He's coming now."**

**The oldest boy came striding into sight. He had already changed into his billowing black Hogwarts robes, and Harry noticed a shiny red and gold badge on his chest with the letter **_**P**_** on it.**

"**Can't stay long, Mother," he said. "I'm up front, the prefects have got two compartments to themselves —"**

"**Oh, are you a **_**prefect,**_** Percy?" said one of the twins, with an air of great surprise. "You should have said something, we had no idea."**

"**Hang on, I think I remember him saying something about it," said the other twin. "Once —"**

"**Or twice —"**

"**A minute —"**

"**All summer —"**

"**Oh, shut up," said Percy the Prefect.**

"**How come Percy gets new robes, anyway?" said one of the twins.**

"**Because he's a **_**prefect,**_**"**__**said their mother fondly. "All right, dear, well, have a good term — send me an owl when you get there."**

**She kissed Percy on the cheek and he left. Then she turned to the twins.**

"**Now, you two — this year, you behave yourselves. If I get one more owl telling me you've — you've blown up a toilet or —"**

"**Blown up a toilet? We've never blown up a toilet."**

"**Great idea though, thanks, Mom."**

"**It's **_**not funny. **_**And look after Ron."**

"**Don't worry, ickle Ronniekins is safe with us."**

"**Shut up," said Ron again. He was almost as tall as the twins al ready and his nose was still pink where his mother had rubbed it.**

"**Hey, Mom, guess what? Guess who we just met on the train?"**

**Harry leaned back quickly so they couldn't see him looking.**

"**Who?"**

"_**Harry Potter**_**!"**

**Harry heard the little girl's voice.**

"**Oh, Mum, can I go on the train and see him, oh Mum, oh please. …"**

"I'm sure you'll get plenty of chances to see him when you start going to Hogwarts next year, but for now please remember that boys — _especially Harry Potter — _arenot to be goggled at like something in the zoo," her mother replied gently.

"Oh, alright" the little girl replied dejectedly, although her face said that she would have preferred to give her mother the slip and sneak onto the train for a peek anyway.

A few minutes later, the youngest redheaded boy walked into the compartment and asked if Harry minded him having a seat there, to which Harry replied "Oh no, I don't mind at all".

"Thanks, I didn't really want to look for an empty one, and figured that this one was good enough with only one other person in it."

After introducing themselves to each other, with Ron fainting at hearing who Harry was exactly, they started talking about various subjects until the Trolley witch came by and asked them if they'd like anything. Harry decided that he'd rather try a bit of everything than miss out on something that was potentially good, paid the woman twelve sickles (he gave her a small tip) and brought everything back into the compartment. He decided that he would put most of it in his trunk for later though, as he didn't want to seem like he was too much of a pig, but shared a couple of chocolate frogs with Ron. Harry then opened one up and was surprised to see his own face staring back at him, with his name underneath the picture. The extremely odd thing was that he didn't even remember this picture being taken, but thought it must have been when he took his very first trip to Diagon Alley when he was shopping with Minnie for some books when he was almost eight years old. He turned it over and read the following:

Harry James Potter

Boy-Who-Lived, Defeater of Voldemort

Widely recognized as the person who brought

about the downfall of Voldemort, Harry is the

youngest person to have earned their own

chocolate frog card. We hope that wherever

Harry is, that he will be enjoying finding his

picture inside a frog very soon.

Ron, wondering why Harry had been quiet for so long, asked him who he had gotten on his card, to which Harry replied "I got myself, but I don't remember this picture being taken."

"WOW! I didn't even know you were on a card either, can I see it?"

"Sure, but I want it back as it's me. If I get another one though, I'll give you one"

"Ok, thanks a lot"

After Ron finished looking at the card and handed it back, someone knocked on the door of the compartment. That someone happened to be looking for a toad that kept getting lost. He introduced himself as Neville Longbottom, and there was a girl that was helping him look, who introduced herself as Hermione Granger.

"No, sorry, we haven't seen any toads in here, did you try everywhere in your compartment?"

"Oh, no, it didn't occur to me that he would try to hide in my own compartment, thanks," and with that the two left, but before the door shut all the way, someone else came sauntering in.

"**Is it true?" he said. "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. So it's you, is it?"**

"**Yes," said Harry. He was looking at the other boys. Both of them were thickset and looked extremely mean. Standing on either side of the pale boy, they looked like bodyguards.**

"**Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle," said the pale boy care lessly, noticing where Harry was looking. "And my names Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."**

**Ron gave a slight cough, which might have been hiding a snig ger. Draco Malfoy looked at him.**

"**Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford."**

**He turned back to Harry. "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."**

**He held out his hand to shake Harry's, but Harry didn't take it.**

"**I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks," he said coolly.**

**Draco Malfoy didn't go red, but a pink tinge appeared in his pale cheeks.**

"**I'd be careful if I were you, Potter," he said slowly. "Unless you're a bit politer you'll go the same way as your parents. They didn't know what was good for them, either. You hang around with riffraff like the Weasleys and that Hagrid, and it'll rub off on you."**

**Both Harry and Ron stood up.**

"**Say that again," Ron said, his face as red as his hair.**

"**Oh, you're going to fight us, are you?" Malfoy sneered.**

"**Unless you get out now," said Harry, more bravely than he felt, because Crabbe and Goyle were a lot bigger than him or Ron.**

"**But we don't feel like leaving, do we, boys? We've eaten all our food and you still seem to have some."**

**Goyle reached toward the Chocolate Frogs next to Ron — Ron leapt forward, but before he'd so much as touched Goyle, Goyle let out a horrible yell.**

**Scabbers the rat was hanging off his finger, sharp little teeth sunk deep into Goyle's knuckle — Crabbe and Malfoy backed away as Goyle swung Scabbers round and round, howling, and when Scab bers finally flew off and hit the window, all three of them disap peared at once. Perhaps they thought there were more rats lurking among the sweets, or perhaps they'd heard footsteps, because a sec ond later, Hermione Granger had come in.**

"**What **_**has**_** been going on?" she said, looking at the sweets all over the floor and Ron picking up Scabbers by his tail.**

"**I think he's been knocked out," Ron said to Harry. He looked closer at Scabbers. "No — I don't believe it — he's gone back to sleep."**

**And so he had.**

After Draco Malfoy and his cronies had left the compartment, they decided that they had better get changed into their robes, and did so just before there was an announcement that they would be arriving in five minutes' time, and to leave their things on the train and they would be taken care of. When the train finally stopped, they got off and heard a loud, booming voice saying "**Firs' years! Firs' years over here!"**

**The person that was saying this had a very big hairy face **(that was attached to an enormous body) **that beamed over the sea of heads.**

"**C'mon, follow me — any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"**

**Slipping and stumbling, they followed the big man down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was so dark on either side of them that Harry thought there must be thick trees there. Nobody spoke much. Neville, the boy who kept losing his toad, sniffed once or twice.**

"**Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," the giant called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here."**

**There was a loud "Oooooh!"**

**The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers.**

"**No more'n four to a boat!" the giant called out, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. Harry and Ron were followed into their boat by Neville and Hermione, whom they had met briefly while on the train.**

"**Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself. "Right then — FORWARD!"**

**And the fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass. Everyone was silent, staring up at the great castle overhead. It towered over them as they sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood.**

"**Heads down!" yelled the giant as the first boats reached the cliff; they all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbor, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles.**

"**Oy, you there! Is this your toad?" said the giant, who was check ing the boats as people climbed out of them.**

"**Trevor!" cried Neville blissfully, holding out his hands. Then they clambered up a passageway in the rock after the giant's lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle.**

**They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door.**

"**Everyone here? You there, still got yer toad?"**

**The giant then raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the cas tle door.**

**The door swung open at once. A tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there, **and was someone that Harry recognized at once as "Aunt Minnie", but he was going to have to start calling her by Professor McGonagall as he was now in school**.**

"**The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said the giant.**

"**Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here."**

"**Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your Houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your House will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your House, sleep in your House dormitory, and spend free time in your House common room.**

"**The four Houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each House has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hog warts, your triumphs will earn your House points, while any rule-breaking will lose House points. At the end of the year, the House with the most points is awarded the House cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever House becomes yours.**

"**The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting."**

**Her eyes lingered for a moment on Neville's cloak, which was fastened under his left ear, and on Ron's smudged nose. Harry ner vously tried to flatten his hair.**

"**I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor Mc Gonagall. "Please wait quietly."**

After a few minutes, **Professor McGonagall had returned. **

"**Now, form a line," Professor McGonagall told the first years, "and follow me."**

**Feeling oddly as though his legs had turned to lead, Harry got into line behind a boy with sandy hair, with Ron behind him, and they walked out of the chamber, back across the hall, and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.**

**Harry had never even imagined such a strange and splendid place. It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were floating in midair over four long tables, where the rest of the stu dents were sitting. These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting. Professor McGonagall led the first years up here, so that they came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them. The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candle light. Dotted here and there among the students, the ghosts shone misty silver. Mainly to avoid all the staring eyes, Harry looked up ward and saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars. He heard Hermione whisper, "It's bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in **_**Hogwarts, A History.**_**"**

**It was hard to believe there was a ceiling there at all, and that the Great Hall didn't simply open on to the heavens.**

**Harry quickly looked down again as Professor McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard's hat. This hat was patched and frayed and extremely dirty. Aunt Petunia wouldn't have let it in the house.**

**Harry had suddenly started ****noticing that everyone else in the hall was now staring at the hat, suddenly decided that he had better start looking at it too, as it seemed the right thing to do at the time. For a few seconds, there was complete silence. Then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth — and the hat began to sing:**

"_**Oh, you may not think I'm pretty, But don't judge on what you see,**_

_**I'll eat myself if you can find a smarter hat than me.**_

_**You can keep your bowlers black, your top hats sleek and tall,**_

_**For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat and I can cap them all.**_

_**There's nothing hidden in your head that the Sorting Hat can't see,**_

_**So try me on and I will tell you where you ought to be.**_

_**You might belong in Gryffindor, Where dwell the brave at heart,**_

_**Their daring, nerve, and chivalry set Gryffindors apart;**_

_**You might belong in Hufflepuff, Where they are just and loyal,**_

_**Those patient Hufflepuffs are true and unafraid of toil;**_

_**Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw, If you've a ready mind,**_

_**Where those of wit and learning, Will always find their kind;**_

_**Or perhaps in Slytherin you'll make your real friends,**_

_**Those cunning folk use any means to achieve their ends.**_

_**So put me on! Don't be afraid**_**! **_**And, for Merlin's sakes, don't get in a flap**_**!**

_**You're in safe hands (though I have none), for I'm a Thinking Cap**_**!"**

**The whole hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again.**

"**So we've just got to try on the hat!" Ron whispered to Harry. "I'll kill Fred, he was going on about wrestling a troll."**

"You wouldn't want to actually kill him, you would be in Azkaban for that. I know an excellent way that you can get him back without having to resort to drastic measures." Harry whispered back.

"Oh, cool, thanks a lot. We'll talk more after we get sorted, no matter what houses we end up in, promise?"

"Yeah, sure, the whole house rivalry thing is stupid anyways."

And with that, they went silent to wait for the sorting to actually begin.

A few minutes later, **Professor McGonagall stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment.**

"**When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said. "Abbott, Hannah!"**

**A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moment's pause —**

"**HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat.**

**The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table. Harry saw the ghost of the Fat Friar waving merrily at her.**

"**Bones, Susan!"**

"**HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat again, and Susan scuttled off to sit next to Hannah.**

"**Boot, Terry!"**

"**RAVENCLAW!"**

**The table second from the left clapped this time; several Raven claws stood up to shake hands with Terry as he joined them.**

"**Brocklehurst, Mandy" went to Ravenclaw too, but "Brown, Lavender" became the first new Gryffindor, and the table on the far left exploded with cheers; Harry could see Ron's twin brothers cat calling.**

"**Bulstrode, Millicent" then became a Slytherin.**

"**Finch-Fletchley, Justin!"**

"**HUFFLEPUFF!"**

**Sometimes, Harry noticed, the hat shouted out the House at once, but at others it took a little while to decide. "Finnigan, Sea mus," the sandy-haired boy next to Harry in the line, sat on the stool for almost a whole minute before the hat declared him a Gryffindor.**

"**Granger, Hermione!"**

**Hermione almost ran to the stool and jammed the hat eagerly on her head.**

"**RAVENCLAW!" shouted the hat. At this, Ron looked slightly happier, figuring at least he wouldn't be in the same house.**

**A horrible thought struck Harry, as horrible thoughts always do when you're very nervous. What if he wasn't chosen at all? What if he just sat there with the hat over his eyes for ages, until Professor McGonagall jerked it off his head and said there had obviously been a mistake and he'd better get back on the train?**

**When Neville Longbottom, the boy who kept losing his toad, was called, he fell over on his way to the stool. The hat took a long time to decide with Neville. When it finally shouted, "GRYFFINDOR," Neville ran off still wearing it, and had to jog back amid gales of laughter to give it to "MacDougal, Morag."**

**Malfoy swaggered forward when his name was called and got his wish at once: the hat had barely touched his head when it screamed, "SLYTHERIN!"**

**Malfoy went to join his friends Crabbe and Goyle, looking pleased with himself.**

**There weren't many people left now.**

"**Moon" … , "Nott" … , "Parkinson" … , then a pair of twin girls, "Patil" and "Patil" … , then "Perks, Sally-Anne" … , and then, at last —**

"**Potter, Harry!"**

**As Harry stepped forward, whispers suddenly broke out like lit tle hissing fires all over the hall.**

"_**Potter,**_** did she say?"**

"_**The**_** Harry Potter?"**

**The last thing Harry saw before the hat dropped over his eyes was the hall full of people craning to get a good look at him. Next second he was looking at the black inside of the hat. He waited.**

"**Hmm," said a small voice in his ear. "Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent, oh my goodness, yes — and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting… Oh, My … a descendant of all four houses, first time ever in the same person … So where shall I put you?"**

**Harry gripped the edges of the stool and thought, **_**Not Slytherin, not Slytherin.**_

"**Not Slytherin, eh?" said the small voice. "Are you sure? You could be great, you know, its all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that — no? Well, if you're sure — better be …"**

A/N: Evil Cliffhanger, I know … don't hate me too much, next chapter won't take as long, I had a business trip that I had to travel for besides deciding if I wanted to continue the story. I do want more reviews though, as I am not getting anything else for writing it.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: I saw this idea in another story, and decided to use it here. I will at least attempt to use reader's suggestions for a chapter from a review (every 25th review, aka 25, 50, 75, etc). This does NOT mean you should suggest anything outlandish, and try to keep within the story as much as possible. Also, if I don't start getting more reviews I just won't post up the next chapter, but the more reviews I get the more often you will receive updates, I can write a chapter in as little as a few hours or so, but I like to see reviews, and reactions to what's in the story. That is the main reason for me not updating as quickly, so if you want this story to continue faster, just submit a good review (no flames please, but constructive criticism welcome). My intent is to continue this story through all of Harry's school years. I am also undecided who to pair Harry up with (Ginny is out as Harry doesn't like the way Ron acts, besides some things that I have planned for later on in the story, but I'm not giving you any more hints about that). Also, neither of the Delacour sisters will be Harry's girlfriend in this story, as such a long distance relationship would not be conducive to the story line, less the time spent at Hogwarts in Fourth year. At the bottom of this chapter, I will post all potential people for Harry to be paired up with, and will leave it up to the readers who they want in (voting to be done through reviews and/or private messages, each further chapter will contain the standings).

**REMEMBER: the more reviews I get, the sooner you receive the new chapter, so please remember to submit your review of the chapter when you finish reading it! It surely can't take very long at all compared to how much time I put into making sure the story is different from the others that I have read, and proof reading etcetera.**

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Overview

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Harry turned into multiple creatures on his 5th birthday, and decided to run away from the Dursleys. He went to Mrs. Figg's house, got all his malnutrition and stuff taken care of by Madam Pomfrey, and then went to live with Professor McGonagall (Aunt Minnie, in private). He is a descendant of the Peverells, the Flamels, Morgana Le Fay, Merlin, Potters (obviously, as that's his last name), and all four of the founders of Hogwarts. The first time he went to Gringotts, the goblins found that his magical core was reduced by 70%, and took care of the problem, and uncovered the abilities that he had included wandless magic, parseltongue—and parselmagic—, he has an eidetic memory, he's an arch mage, can cast any spell silently, and can turn into any animal with just a thought. His school supplies include a multiple compartment trunk (see previous chapters) and an e-reader which contains all his school books and any extra reading that's related to studying.

As a reminder of where we left off, here are the last few lines of chapter 2 (since I left you in a cliff-hanger).

**As Harry stepped forward, whispers suddenly broke out like lit tle hissing fires all over the hall.**

"_**Potter,**_** did she say?"**

"_**The**_** Harry Potter?"**

**The last thing Harry saw before the hat dropped over his eyes was the hall full of people craning to get a good look at him. Next second he was looking at the black inside of the hat. He waited.**

"**Hmm," said a small voice in his ear. "Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent, oh my goodness, yes — and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting… Oh, My … a descendant of all four houses, first time ever in the same person … So where shall I put you?"**

**Harry gripped the edges of the stool and thought, **_**Not Slytherin, not Slytherin.**_

"**Not Slytherin, eh?" said the small voice. "Are you sure? You could be great, you know, its all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that — no? Well, if you're sure — better be …"**

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Chapter 3

(**bold** lettering is excerpted from book)

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"**Well, if you're sure — better be **RAVENCLAW!"

Harry heard the sorting hat shout the last word to the rest of the hall, so he took the hat off, handed it to Professor McGonagall, got off the stool and went to sit down next to his new house-mates. He felt very grateful indeed that the sorting hat hadn't shouted out that he was related to all four of the founders, as he didn't really want that kind of attention from everyone else (not that he wasn't getting it already because of his bloody _name_ for crying out loud). After he got to his table and took a seat, he heard Ron splutter and say "How come that, that HAT put him THERE? He was supposed to be in Gryffindor, like ALL the Potters have been. Now we won't be close friends, because he'll likely have his head stuck in a book all day."

Harry figured that it wasn't very nice of him, and decided that since the prat felt that way, then he wouldn't try to continue the friendship that he had been willing to make an attempt at even between houses, if Ron didn't manage to get into Ravenclaw, as he doubted since he wasn't acting very smart at the moment. Harry turned to his left and was introduced to the boy as Anthony Goldstein, and on his right he met Samantha Fawcett, both of whom had also been sorted just that evening, he just hadn't taken too much notice at the time. Across the table from him were Michael Corner, Padma Patil, and an empty seat, which just became occupied by Lisa Turpin. He then looked up at the staff table, and recognized Hagrid, Aunt Minnie (he really _needed_ to get used to calling her Professor McGonagall), and Dumbledore, who was sitting in a very large gold chair in the middle. The reason he recognized Dumbledore was because he was collecting the chocolate frog cards, and had a binder with modified pages to fit 10 cards per page, three on the top and bottom rows and four in the middle. These pages were held in the binder by two holes, one to the left of the exact center of the top and bottom rows. The majority of the people that he had Chocolate frog cards for were either very old or dead, but he was positive that there were some other younger people on them too, besides himself. If there weren't, he'd be both very surprised and thoroughly annoyed, as he would be the youngest person on Chocolate Frogs for awhile.

Harry suddenly noticed that Ron Weasley had just been called up to be sorted, and he figured he'd better at least pay attention so that he would know what class he was in. It seemed that the hat was taking an awfully long time to sort him, even longer than it had for himself, but it finally shouted "HUFFLEPUFF" and became silent once more, much to Ron's consternation. It appeared that Ron was not happy with this _at all_, due to the fact that he hadn't even gotten up off of the stool to go sit at his new table, but this was quickly rectified by the teachers. After the last student, whose name was read **as ****"Zabini, Blaise," was sorted into Slytherin, Professor McGonagall rolled up her scroll and took the Sorting Hat and stool away.**

**Harry looked down at his empty gold plate. He had only just realized how hungry he was. The snacks on the train seemed ages ago.**

**Albus Dumbledore had gotten to his feet. He was beaming at the students, his arms opened wide, as if nothing could have pleased him more than to see them all there.**

"**Welcome!" he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Be fore we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!**

"**Thank you!"**

**He sat back down. Everybody clapped and cheered. Harry didn't know whether to laugh or not. **Just then, all of a sudden, **the dishes in front of him were piled high with food. He had never seen so many things he liked to eat on one table: roast beef and roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, **mashed potatoes**, fries, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, **five different kindsof** gravy, ketchup, and, for some strange reason, peppermint humbugs.** After Harry chose a few things and put them on his plate in abundance, without caring what got mixed with what since he was going to be eating it all anyways, he started in on the feast. After he had had three plates full of food, and when it was apparent that at least nearly **everyone had eaten as much as they could, the remains of the food faded from the plates, leaving them sparkling clean as before. A moment later the desserts appeared. Blocks of ice cream in every flavor you could think of, apple pies, **cherry pies, pumpkin pies, blueberry pies, strawberry rhubarb cobbler,** treacle tarts, chocolate éclairs and jam doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, **ten different flavors of **Jell-O, rice pud ding, **tapioca pudding, chocolate pudding, spotted dick, chocolate gateau** …** in other words, enough to make sure that everyone had whatever they wanted to choose from for dessert. Harry selected what looked to be an exceptionally large piece of treacle tart, placed it on his plate along with some ice cream on top, and began to eat it, and decided that it was a very good combination.

**Harry, who was starting to feel warm and sleepy, looked up at the High Table again. Hagrid was drinking deeply from his goblet. Professor McGonagall was talking to Professor Dumbledore. **Another teacher, one who was wearing an extremely** absurd **purple** turban, was talking to a teacher with greasy black hair, a hooked nose, and sallow skin.**

**It happened very suddenly. The hook-nosed teacher looked past **the purple** turban and straight into Harry's eyes — and **all of a sudden,** a sharp, hot pain shot across the scar on Harry's forehead. **What happened next was extremely peculiar: Harry started seeing things that had happened when he had been at the Dursley's shortly before his fifth birthday. these mental images depicted him on the top step of a step-stool, which provided nothing to hold onto in case he fell off, cooking breakfast for his mean relatives. As suddenly as this strange phenomenon occurred, it stopped. Harry then saw, out of the corner of his eye, that **Professor Dumbledore got to his feet again. The hall fell silent.**

"**Ahem — just a few more words now that we are all fed and wa tered."**

*What are we, pets? He shouldn't be describing it in that manner* Harry thought, but then decided that he'd better listen so that he didn't miss any important announcements.

"**I have a few start-of-term notices to give you. First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbid den to all pupils. A few of our older students would do well to remember that as well."**

**Dumbledore's twinkling eyes flashed in the direction of the Weasley twins **as he said this, as if insinuating that these particular twins had already broken this rule at least once, and probably more than that**.**

"**I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corri dors.**

"**Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their House teams should contact Madam Hooch.**

"**And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corri dor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die an **extremely gruesome and** very painful death."**

"**And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" cried Dumbledore. Harry noticed that the other teachers' smiles had,** quite suddenly indeed,** become rather fixed.**

**Dumbledore gave his wand a little flick, as if he was trying to get a fly off the end, and a long golden ribbon flew out of it, which rose high above the tables and twisted itself, snakelike, into words.**

"**Everyone pick their favorite tune," said Dumbledore, "and off we go!"**

**And the school bellowed:**

"_**Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts, Teach us something please,**_

_**Whether we be old and bald or young with scabby knees,**_

_**Our heads could do with filling with some interesting stuff,**_

_**For now they're bare and full of air, dead flies and bits of fluff,**_

_**So teach us things worth knowing, bring back what we've forgot,**_

_**Just do your best, we'll do the rest, and learn until our brains all rot.**_**"**

**Everybody finished the song at different times. At last, only the Weasley twins were left singing along to a very slow funeral march. Dumbledore conducted their last few lines with his wand and when they had finished, he was one of those who clapped loudest.**

"**Ah, music," he said, wiping his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"**

*Oh, great, now he thinks we're all horses or something. Off we trot indeed.*

After Dumbledore's announcements after the feast, the Ravenclaw prefects got the attention of their first year charges, and said "Follow us up to the Ravenclaw dormitories, please."

Harry got up and joined the rest of the students in a line, and started walking. He tried to pay attention to all the turns and such that they were taking, but he must have had too much to eat, as he couldn't remember. Once everyone got to the door to the common room, the prefects explained that they didn't have a set password, but instead the door asked a question, and if you get it wrong you have to wait for the next person to come along, hoping that you weren't the last person out for the evening, so that you could learn the logic that the door uses at times. They then each took a turn at the door so that the new students could see how it worked and also to get a few of the questions and answers into their heads so that they wouldn't be completely new to the weird door. After the last prefect gave the correct answer, all of the students went in and waited in the common room for further instructions. Once everyone was seated comfortably, the prefects went around handing out a piece of parchment to each first year student, then told them that these parchments were to assist new students that were in Ravenclaw to be able to find their way around the castle without getting lost, and that they should be returned within two weeks for the next year's students to use. Each one of them were set up in the same way: you tapped whichever place you wanted to go, and it would tell you the quickest route to get there, utilizing shortcuts as if they were common knowledge to all students, but Harry had a feeling that some of these passageways were only known to Ravenclaws and staff members. He also felt that this should be available to all new students, not just those who happened to be in Ravenclaw, because other new students had just as much capability of getting lost, if not more so than themselves, as they were — at least supposedly — the smartest students in the school, the house motto being "**Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure**."

At the same time, up in the headmaster's office, things were _not_ pretty at all. Headmaster Dumbledore was livid that Harry hadn't been put into Gryffindor, and if possible, even more so that he wasn't house mates with Ronald Weasley, whom he had been counting on to help him keep Harry from having too many friends. The first words out of his mouth were directed at the Sorting Hat, which had been placed in its usual location, but was placed on the Headmaster's desk as Dumbledore wanted to talk to it about tonight's sorting. He asked why had Harry been put into Ravenclaw, and the hat replied that Harry seemed to know too much information about the wizarding world for someone who had been (at least supposedly) raised by Muggles, and that hadn't even found out about magic until a month prior. After questioning the hat extensively on _exactly_ how much knowledge it had seen in Harry, Dumbledore had fallen to the floor in a dead faint. When he was able to revive himself from the faint — two HOURS later — he then questioned the hat why he had selected Hufflepuff as the best house for Ronald Weasley. That made the sorting hat go off into a tangent about how Hufflepuff had been willing to take magical students that didn't fit any of the other houses, as well as those who showed loyalty to other people, because without that added stipulation, Ronald would have been pronounced in no house at all, and been sent back home. The headmaster had a very restless sleep, wondering how on earth he was going to be able to regain control over Harry as his true intent by leaving him at the Dursleys would have left Harry alone, lonely, abused and friendless, and without most of his magic, which he had seen to personally by placing a ridiculously high 70% block directly on Harry's magical core, which still left Harry with more magic than you would have expected from an eleven year old boy that would have been constantly abused — both verbally and physically — by his so called relatives, who weren't even actually Harry's true relatives, since Lily Evans was not Petunia Dursley's biological sister.

The headmaster had been setting this up for a long time — too long, indeed, to have things get royally screwed up now by having Harry in Ravenclaw — but the hat was adamant, stating that if Dumbledore even tried to suggest to Harry that he be re-sorted into Gryffindor that not only would it confirm its original choice in Ravenclaw, seeing how idiotic the headmaster was currently acting, it would magically contact the proper authorities for attempting to sabotage at least several magical children's educational experiences; namely at least Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley. Unbeknownst to the headmaster, the founders had enabled the hat to read the minds of the people in the room in such a way as to not be able to be detected, so that it could stay up to date with what was happening around the castle, and the world, so that it could properly make decisions about which house to place which student in. After all, how else was a hat supposed to know any extenuating circumstances that led to a certain child acting in a way that he or she shouldn't have been acting? It had been purposefully culling away some of the children of Voldemort's followers away from Slytherin, in hopes to disrupt the followers' unity should Voldemort ever regain a physical body; but it did so with such discreetness, and ingenuity, that not even the Headmaster suspected anything was going wrong with having the supporters' children separated from each other. Most of these had ended up in Hufflepuff, there being nowhere else to go; but alas, EVERYONE would have noticed if it had tried to separate Malfoy from Crabbe and Goyle. Personally, it felt that Crabbe and Goyle belonged in Hufflepuff, seeing as they didn't posess a hundredth of an ounce of cunning between them, instead relying on intimidation to get what they wanted. On the other hand, Malfoy would not have done well anywhere BUT in Slytherin, as he truly believed in Pureblood Supremacy and, by association, everything that it stood for, including that everyone that _couldn't_ trace their wizarding family back for at least five generations through each parent shouldn't even be allowed to have a magical education, or, as he personally felt, a life. Draco Malfoy would have gladly seen everyone that was inferior to him (which was, in his mind, about 99% of the entire world's population) dead so that he wouldn't have to obey any laws about not performing magic outside of school, there would be no reason for the statute of secrecy if all the Muggles were annihilated.

Almost as if there were some divine conspiracy going on from the very moment that he had stepped out of the common room the next morning, which, knowing his luck, there probably was, Harry was thronged by a multitude of students wanting to either get his autograph on their chocolate frog card, or see his scar, or — worse yet — both. By the time he had managed to make his way down to the Great Hall for breakfast, he had been asked out by no less than a dozen older girls, all of whom he had either never met, or met very briefly the previous evening at dinner. Probably the worst thing about this — not that getting mobbed was good in the first place — was that Draco Malfoy had seen him being asked by at least a few of them (how many, Harry couldn't be sure), and because he felt that _he_ should get the best of everything, rather than someone who had looked as though he had never even touched a hairbrush in his life, even if that someone _was_ famous, had announced it — VERY loudly — at breakfast, asking where Harry was going to open up his new harem with all of the girlfriends he was getting. Unfortunately for Draco, who clearly wasn't thinking straight at the time, the staff had overheard this and assigned detention every evening for a month, besides taking away fifty house points, which would have been more except for the fact that the houses didn't have very many yet, there having been no classes yet to have points awarded in. Also at breakfast time, probably worse than dinner time last night, people were _still_ trying to meet Harry personally, even being so bold as to come right up and push others aside for a chance to meet their Savior, aka the Boy-Who-Lived, aka Defeater of Voldemort, no matter if he was only fifteen months — slightly more than a year — old when he had supposedly managed this awe-inspiring feat and therefore most probably wouldn't remember even a single detail about it. Harry was so inundated with people thronging around him, that until he managed to make it into one of his shortcuts toward his first class, could not even beat a snail in a race. At this rate, he wouldn't have even managed to make it to the classroom until it was over, so he thanked whoever had thought to provide the Ravenclaw Guide to Hogwarts, and hurtled off toward his first class, dropping his bag and taking his seat with seconds to spare.

**Potential girlfriends for Harry**** (33 listed)**

Alicia Spinnet — Gryffindor chaser 2 years above Harry

Angelina Johnson — Gryffindor chaser 2 years above Harry

Astoria Greengrass — Slytherin 2 years below Harry

Beth Dunstan — no house mentioned

Bradley ? — Ravenclaw chaser (no last name mentioned in series)

Cho Chang — Ravenclaw 1 year above Harry

Daphne Greengrass — Slytherin in Harry's year

Eleanor Branstone — Hufflepuff 3 years below Harry

Emma Dobbs — no house mentioned, 3 years below Harry

Hannah Abbott — Hufflepuff in Harry's year

Harper ? — Slytherin chaser (no last name mentioned in series)

Hermione Granger — Gryffindor in Harry's year

Katie Bell — Gryffindor chaser one year above Harry

Laura Madley — Hufflepuff, 3 years below Harry

Lavender Brown — Gryffindor in Harry's year

Leanne ? — Katie Bell's friend, no house mentioned (no last name mentioned in series)

Lisa Turpin — Ravenclaw in Harry's year

Luna Lovegood — Ravenclaw one year below Harry

Mandy Brocklehurst — Ravenclaw in Harry's year

Marietta Edgecombe — Ravenclaw one year above Harry

Melinda Bobbin — family owns a chain of apothecaries, no house mentioned

Millicent Bulstrode — Slytherin student in Harry's year

Nymphadora Tonks — student 5 years above Harry, metamorphmagus

Padma Patil — Ravenclaw in Harry's year, twin of Parvati

Pansy Parkinson — Slytherin in Harry's year

Parvati Patil — Gryffindor in Harry's year, twin of Padma

Patricia Stimpson — two years above Harry, no house mentioned

Penelope Clearwater — Ravenclaw prefect 4 years above Harry

Sally-Anne Perks — student in Harry's year, no house mentioned

Samantha Fawcett — Ravenclaw in Harry's year

Susan Bones — Hufflepuff in Harry's year

-OR- an original character of my creation, I would have to make up some stuff about some of the above mentioned people, anyway


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N****:** Even though I may forget to post this every chapter, it still remains true. I do not own Harry Potter or any other recognizable characters. These remain solely the property of J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros.

**A/N****:** I saw this idea in another story, and decided to use it here. I will at least attempt to use reader's suggestions for a chapter from a review (every 25th review, aka 25, 50, 75, etc). This does NOT mean you should suggest anything outlandish, and try to keep within the story as much as possible. Also, if I don't start getting more reviews I just won't post up the next chapter, but the more reviews I get the more often you will receive updates, I can write a chapter in as little as a few hours or so, but I like to see reviews, and reactions to what's in the story. That is the main reason for me not updating as quickly, so if you want this story to continue faster, just submit a good review (no flames please, but constructive criticism welcome). My intent is to continue this story through all of Harry's school years. I am also undecided who to pair Harry up with (Ginny is out as Harry doesn't like the way Ron acts, besides some things that I have planned for later on in the story, but I'm not giving you any more hints about that). Also, neither of the Delacour sisters will be Harry's girlfriend in this story, as such a long distance relationship would not be conducive to the story line, less the time spent at Hogwarts in Fourth year. I have put up a poll including all potential people for Harry to be paired up with, as girlfriend(s) and will leave it up to the readers who they want in (voting to be done through the poll on my profile, which was added after the last chapter was placed up).

Sorry I haven't updated in a while, my internet (as well as the entire town's) was down for a few weeks due to a freak lightning storm hitting a few telephone poles. I did, however, manage to get a few chapters typed up for the most part, might change a few things in it though.

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Overview

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Harry turned into multiple creatures on his 5th birthday, and decided to run away from the Dursleys. He went to Mrs. Figg's house, got all his malnutrition and stuff taken care of by Madam Pomfrey, and then went to live with Professor McGonagall (Aunt Minnie, in private). He is a descendant of the Peverells, the Flamels, Morgana Le Fay, Merlin, Potters (obviously, as that's his last name), and all four of the founders of Hogwarts. The first time he went to Gringotts, the goblins found that his magical core was reduced by 70%, and took care of the problem, and uncovered the abilities that he had included wandless magic, parseltongue—and parselmagic—, he has an eidetic memory, he's an arch mage, can cast any spell silently, and can turn into any animal with just a thought. His school supplies include a multiple compartment trunk (see previous chapters) and an e-reader which contains all his school books and any extra reading that's related to studying. Harry was sorted into Ravenclaw house at Hogwarts, ate the feast, then proceeded to the common room where he obtained a map that was helpful to new students to get around the castle without getting lost. Even with said map, he barely made it to his first class on time, due to all the people that were hovering so close to him that he couldn't win a race against a snail.

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CHAPTER 4

A/N: **bold** lettering is excerpted from the book

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As the classes started with seeing who all was there, which was also for the teachers' benefit of matching names with faces, there were a few minutes for Harry to catch his breath from having to run to make his class on time. **Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, was a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. At the start of their first class he took the roll call, and when he reached Harry's name he gave an excited squeak and toppled out of sight. ** When Harry realized this, he figured that he'd better get used to all the gawking if even the teachers reacted this way to his mere presence. Once the roll call was out of the way, Professor Flitwick handed out quizzes to see, first of all, how much everyone had grasped from reading the books, and secondly, to see if any students needed particular assistance in learning the material. As Harry looked over his quiz, he realized very quickly that he already knew everything, and began filling in the answers immediately. A mere fifteen minutes later, he had finished the quiz and handed it in, and asked Professor Flitwick what there was to do. Professor Flitwick, after glancing over Harry's quiz, suggested that he might go ahead and go to the library to read up on some more books until just before class was over, then to make his way to the next class while the halls were relatively empty. Harry realized that he couldn't keep competing with all the halls being crowded between every class, so he agreed that it would be best to maneuver between classes just before the class time had let out. With that suggestion planted firmly in his mind, he went to the library for a half an hour to potentially find some books that he was interested in but had not seen when he had gone to Flourish and Blotts.

Before Harry knew it, there were eight minutes left until the end of class time. He took the three books he had located up to the librarian, Madam Pince, to check them out so that he could read them later. That being done, he quickly made his way toward his next class, arriving outside the door just as the previous class was let out. Getting to the classroom ahead of time like this had both its advantages and its drawbacks. the advantage being that he wouldn't be late for his class, but the drawback being that students from the previous class could spend time trying to ask Harry questions about what he remembered of that dreadful night that Voldemort had killed his parents and attempted to kill him. Luckily, though, they couldn't stand around asking him questions for too long, as they had to get to their own classes on time. Once these students left, Harry quickly slipped into the classroom so that he wouldn't be caught outside by the time any more students came along.

**Professor Snape, like Professor Flitwick, started the class by taking the roll call, and like Professor Flitwick, he paused at Harry's name.**

"**Ah, **_**yes,**_**" he said softly, "Harry Potter. Our new — **_**celebrity.**_**"**

Ronald Weasley, and his apparently new friends,couldn't control the mirth as they thought of what Professor Snape might do to Harry, because they had heard some very interesting rumors about the greasy bat from older classmates that had been in his classes already**. **Perhaps unfortunately for them, Professor Snape heard this, and bellowed out "5 Points from Hufflepuff for interrupting". **Snape then finished calling the names and looked up at the class.**

"**You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making," he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word — **likemost other teachers, Harry assumed**, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses. … I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death — if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach." ** The room was almost completely silent as most of the class was busy writing this down.

"**Potter!" said Snape suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"**

"You would get a sleeping potion so powerful, it would be known as the Draught of the Living Death, Sir."

The look on Professor Snape's face was incredulous, as he didn't think that the brat would have known the answer to this question. He racked his brain for a couple of minutes to try and find a question that the brat wouldn't know the answer to, before deciding to try asking him a trick question.

"**What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"**

"Nothing, sir. Monkshood and wolfsbane are the same plant, which is also known as aconite."

At his once again perfect answer, Professor Snape started seething inside with rage. Determined to catch him with a question that Harry wouldn't know, he decided to try something different, on a potion that wasn't normally even attempted until fifth year, thinking that this time he had the brat right where he wanted him.

"Very good, Potter. It seems that you just might make it in this class after all. I, however, have one more question for you before we get started with the day's potion. Could you perhaps tell me two ingredients in the potion known as the Draught of Peace?"

As Professor Snape asked this question, Harry had to think about it for a minute, which caused a huge grin to appear on Professor Snape's face. However, said grin melted away faster than chocolate ice cream in the middle of summer as Harry replied, "Yes, sir, I can. Two of the ingredients used in the Draught of Peace are six ounces of powdered moonstone and two drops of hellebore."

Once Harry finished speaking, Professor Snape fainted to the floor, having not expected someone who had been at Hogwarts for only two days to know such a tricky potion, and didn't revive until four minutes before the end of class. Once he was revived, however, he glared menacingly at Harry, and said "Thirty points from Ravenclaw and a detention for cheating" with a nasty glint in his eye. "Please stay after class in order to arrange your detention." Inwardly, Professor Snape was maniacally happy that his plans to keep Ravenclaw from getting too many points was off to a good start, having taken away all that had been earned that day already in other classes, albeit with an unfair ruse. Also, he was happy that he was able to deduct five points from a Weasley, which had been for a little revenge against Fred and George Weasley because of the prank they had pulled on him at the leaving feast last year after the house cup had been awarded. He was planning on taking points from them directly if the opportunity presented itself, and even if it didn't, he was going to _make_ an opportunity to do so arise, as he wasn't satisfied with taking points from just Ronald as he was in a different house than the twins.

After the class ended, Professor Snape dismissed the rest of his students then turned toward Harry to get the detention arranged. He knew that the First years' curfew was nine o'clock, and planned to take advantage of this to deduct even more points by catching Harry out after curfew. The detention was arranged for two hours' of cauldron cleaning without magic, beginning at seven at night. Harry, however, also knew that curfew was nine o'clock, so asked if he was going to get a permission slip to get back to his common room after the detention, which caused Professor Snape to grudgingly change the start time to six thirty. He then told Harry to get out of his sight and go to lunch, which Harry did gladly, as he was ravenously hungry.

**Professor McGonagall was different **than Harry had thought she would be, at least while in the process of teaching a class**. Harry had been quite right to think she wasn't a teacher to cross. Strict and clever, she gave them a talking-to the moment they sat down in her first class.**

"**Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned."**

**Then she changed her desk into a pig and back again. They were all very impressed and couldn't wait to get started, but soon realized they weren't going to be changing the furniture into animals for a long time. After taking a lot of **somewhat **complicated notes, they were each given a match and started trying to turn it into a needle. **Except for Harry, whom Aunt Minnie *er, Professor McGonagall* knew could do this already, **by the end of the lesson, only Hermione Granger had made any difference to her match; Professor McGonagall showed the class how it had gone all silver and pointy and gave Hermione a rare smile.** While the remainder of the class was attempting to transfigure their match sticks into needles, Harry quickly, yet lazily, transfigured a round dozen match sticks, then got out his e-reader to continue his third time of reading through his first year's books so that they stood out more prominently in his mind than the further years' books. A few minutes before the end of class, Professor McGonagall approached Harry and suggested that he go ahead and pack up early so that he wouldn't have to be fighting the main crowds to get to the Ravenclaw common room for a bit of relaxation before dinner.

A couple of weeks into classes, a notice had appeared on the notice boards of the common rooms, stating that flying lessons were to begin on Sunday, with all houses learning together. As anyone could have predicted, this was discussed (very loudly) over dinner that evening as everyone who had either heard or read about this particular event knew that this was the first year this was being done. Always before this, the houses were either individual or paired up with only one other house for these lessons. Finally, as if the noise level was getting to him, Professor Dumbledore cast a sonorous charm at his neck, then got everyone's attention. He announced that all the houses were being put together for the flying lessons this year, since for the past few years, attendance had been down due to there being casualties of the war. He also said that if any particular student did not agree with this decision, that the flying lessons were not being forced onto anyone, and they could just sit these particular lessons out.

"**Typical," **thought** Harry darkly. "Exactly what I always wanted. To make a fool of myself on a broomstick in front of **the whole school**." He had been anticipating learning to fly more than any thing else.**

Finally, the morning arrived that they would be learning to fly, and even Harry knew better than to try asking if he could learn on his own broom, as he wasn't really supposed to even have it there at school with him. Harry heard someone shouting from the Gryffindor table about Neville having gotten a Remembrall, which Harry felt wasn't a very useful tool, as it didn't even give you a hint as to what you had forgotten, but then he noticed Draco Malfoy attempting to cause trouble. Before he could react, he saw that Professor McGonagall had also seen what was about to happen, and had suddenly appeared as if out of thin air.

"**What's going on?"**

"**Malfoy's got my Remembrall, Professor."**

**Scowling, Malfoy quickly dropped the Remembrall back on the table.**

"**Just looking," he said, and he sloped away with Crabbe and Goyle behind him.**

**At two-thirty that afternoon, Harry, **along with the rest of the students,** hurried down the front steps onto the grounds for their first flying lesson. It was a clear, breezy day, and the grass rippled under their feet as they marched down the sloping lawns toward a smooth, flat lawn on the opposite side of the grounds to the for bidden forest, whose trees were swaying darkly in the distance.**

**Harry had heard **several older students** complain about the school brooms** while in the common room**, saying that some of them started to vibrate if you flew too high, or always flew slightly to the left.**

**Their teacher, Madam Hooch, arrived. She had short, gray hair, and yellow eyes like a hawk. **Also with Madam Hooch was the school nurse, in case anything happened, as it was the first time in the air for some of the students. Harry was also slightly aware that there were a few people in the distance watching this, but he didn't know who any of them were, so after alerting Madam Hooch, he decided that it wasn't any further concern of his and resumed his focus on the lesson at hand. After checking out who all was viewing the proceedings, to make sure that there wasn't anyone there that shouldn't be, Madam Hooch rejoined the group.

"**Well, what are you all waiting for?" she barked. "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up."**

**Harry glanced down at his broom. It was old and some of the twigs stuck out at odd angles.**

"**Stick out your right hand over your broom," called Madam Hooch at the front, "and say 'Up!' "**

"**UP!" everyone shouted.**

**Harry's broom jumped into his hand at once, but it was one of the few that did. Hermione Granger's had simply rolled over on the ground, and Neville's hadn't moved at all. Perhaps brooms, like horses, could tell when you were afraid, thought Harry; there was a quaver in Neville's voice that said only too clearly that he wanted to keep his feet on the ground.**

**Madam Hooch then showed them how to mount their brooms without sliding off the end, and walked up and down the rows cor recting their grips. **It seemed that a lot of students** were delighted when she told Malfoy he'd been doing it wrong for years.**

"**Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," said Madam Hooch. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle — three — two —"**

As Madam Hooch said the word "two", all of a sudden, Neville's broom, for some reason, no one ever found out why, had suddenly started rising, even though Neville hadn't kicked off. Due to this, Neville quickly grasped the broom tightly with both hands, as he was afraid he would fall off.

"**Come back, boy!" she shouted, but Neville was rising straight up like a cork shot out of a bottle — **fifteen feet — twenty-eight feet — forty feet**. **Harry, who somehow knew that this could only end badly if something wasn't done, instinctively pushed off of the ground with a very firm kick, and shot up into the air even faster than Neville had. He then watched Neville carefully for any signs that he needed some assistance, and none too soon, for he had seen that Neville's broom had suddenly tipped over to one side when it had reached sixty-five feet in the air. Neville, not having experienced how to handle brooms yet, and also without having the instinctual knowledge of it like Harry seemed to have, had fallen off, and almost as suddenly, Harry reacted, shooting forward at a steep angle so that he would meet Neville before he had hit the ground. Finally, when they were about eight feet off the ground, Harry caught Neville, but with an unforeseen complication. The momentum which Neville had attained while he had been falling had been greater than Harry was expecting but was reduced by Harry having been there, although it caused Harry to fall the rest of the way to the ground. The impact broke both of his ankles and one of his wrists, but his actions had saved a fellow student's life.

Since the event was witnessed by so many students, it wasn't long at all before the remaining teachers had heard about Harry's heroic efforts while at the first flying lesson. By the time Madam Pomfrey had released Harry from the hospital wing after treating the injuries he had sustained, giving him extra time before he was allowed to walk due to both ankles having been broken, it was dinner time, so Harry went to eat. after eating, he went to the library to return the books that he had borrowed, and to look for some more books. He was so engrossed in picking out what seemed to be interesting volumes that he lost track of the time, until when he inadvertently walked past Madam Pince's desk, intending to go to the other side of the library to continue looking for books, and she informed him that it was ten minutes until nine. Surprised, Harry quickly checked out, and ran all the way to the common room, making it in just as it became nine o' clock.

After having run the entire way from the library, it took Harry a moment to catch his breath, and therefore he didn't immediately notice anything unusual. As he became aware of his surroundings, he noticed that the same people that he didn't know from the flying lesson, along with two other people, were sitting with Professor Flitwick. When Harry had recovered sufficiently from running and begun to move into the room, Professor Flitwick indicated that he was to join him and his guests. As Harry approached, the group stood up and each of them shook his hand in turn. After everyone had sat down, Harry was introduced to them as follows: Dunbar Oglethorpe – Chief of Quidditch Union for the Administration and Betterment of the British League and its Endeavours (Q.U.A.B.B.L.E.); Josef Wronski – Polish Quidditch Seeker for the Grodzisk Goblins, inventor of the Wronski Feint; Ludovic Bagman – Quidditch Beater for the Wimbourne Wasps and Head of the Department of Games and Sports within the Ministry of Magic; Meghan McCormack –Quidditch Keeper for Puddlemere United; Amelia Susan Bones – Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement; and Cornelius Oswald Fudge, Minister of Magic. As he heard the title of the last person, he fainted.

After Harry had been revived from his fainting, he was asked if that had been his first time on a broom, to which they got a reply that it was. After a few minutes of talking about Quidditch, during which time Harry was also thinking over why Minister Fudge would take time out of his supposedly busy schedule to see him, a mere first year, Minister Fudge stood up. "Mr. Harry Potter, on behalf of the Ministry of Magic, I am here to present you with an Order of Merlin, Second Class, for risking your own life to save that of a fellow student. Also with the Order of Merlin, you receive two hundred fifty thousand galleons, which have been deposited into your trust vault at Gringotts bank. Here is the deposit slip showing record of the deposit. Now that my purpose for being here has been taken care of, I must be getting home" said Minister Fudge.

Professor Flitwick, and indeed the remainder of the people that were still in the room, were gob-smacked to see Harry receive the Order of Merlin at such a young age. Harry was then informed that he is the youngest person to have ever received the award, beating out a 15 year old Norvel Twonk who had died while saving a Muggle child from being savaged by a manticore. The talk then turned back to Quidditch, and continued until just a few minutes before ten, at which time Professor Flitwick suggested that Harry get to bed so that he would be well-rested for classes the next day.

After the excitement of the first flying lesson, things settled down into a dull routine. Professor Flitwick had talked Headmaster Dumbledore into allowing Harry, even though he was only a first year, to join the tryouts for the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. Professor Dumbledore finally agreed, on concession that Harry must keep all his grades at Exceeds Expectations or above. This was mainly due to the fact that Professor Dumbledore didn't know about Harry's extra studying before he had come to Hogwarts, and also he didn't have any spies within Ravenclaw to know that Harry was reading advanced books that were meant for people that had already graduated. Harry had been keeping up on his physical fitness by going out every morning and running around the lake for an hour and a half, then going in and taking a shower before breakfast. The only people that were aware of this were Hagrid, due to the fact that Harry's normal course went past his hut, and Professor Sprout who had caught him at it a few times while working early in the greenhouses. Sundays also contained flying lessons for the first years and any other students that wished to join to improve their flying skills. Finally, Thursday the 2nd rolled around, which was the day that the Ravenclaw Quidditch captain, third year Roger Davies, had decided that the Ravenclaw Quidditch tryouts were to take place. By this time, Harry had had three flying lessons (he went to them anyway because he enjoyed flying so much).

The tryouts were being held in order to select new beaters, keeper, and seeker, as well as reserve chasers. The only returning players from the previous year's team were the chasers, third year Roger Davies, and fifth years Jeremy Stretton and Randolph Burrow. First up were the warm-ups so that the students were able to get used to the current conditions so that they wouldn't interfere with the flying during tryouts. After the warm-ups, Roger called for everyone to go off to the sidelines except for those trying out to be the team's new beaters. The only obvious choice here was a second year Duncan Inglebee, who although young, had a mean swing on him. He had gotten ready and swung at a bludger, knocking it half way down the Quidditch pitch before it could regain its control to try and target anyone else. The remaining three players that were trying out to be a beater were all evenly matched, so Roger decided to put fifth year Penelope Clearwater as the other player, with having the other two people that tried out, both second years Eddie Carmichael and Marcus Belby, as reserve beaters. Next, they tried out five keepers, with the chasers each taking ten shots at the goals. The top two ended up each saving 27 out of 30 attempts, and so had a second run of two goal attempts from each of the chasers, in which second year Grant Page saved all six shots, and the new reserve keeper, third year Bobby Bradley, had saved five.

Finally, it was time for the tryouts for the position of Seeker, which Harry was trying out for. The only thing that could have been changed, in his opinion, would have been if he were allowed to try out on his own broom, but as a first year, he wasn't supposed to have it there, so he selected one of the school brooms. First there was an impromptu race between all hopefuls, tournament style as there were eight people trying out to be seeker. Harry easily won his first round, and gladly went off to watch the other hopefuls. After the other three heats, it was time for round two. The girl that won round two before him (he was in the second heat of round two) looked to be quite speedy. Harry then approached his next opponent, and wished her luck with a handshake, which was returned. As their race finished, Harry had won by only a couple of broom lengths, and so went into the final round, after taking a minute to get a drink of water. The final round was a grueling ten laps around the inside of the Quidditch pitch (the prior rounds having been three and six laps respectively). He then shook hands with his opponent, who introduced herself as Cho Chang, and got into position for the race.

As they came around the last bend on the final lap, Harry was slightly behind Cho Chang, and he wanted to win, so he pushed a bit more of his magic into the broom for added speed, and came up dead even with her just as they hit the finish line. All in all, for using a school broom, he felt that this was quite an accomplishment, due to the fact that Cho was using a Nimbus 2000. After the races were over, the top four competitors were each given a set length of time to see who could capture the snitch the most times, and Harry barely caught it one more time than Cho had, but if he had hesitated another second, the results would have been tied here too. After all the results were in, Roger Davies, the captain, announced that Harry would be the main seeker, with Cho Chang being on the reserve team. Harry was thrilled with this news, and once they got their reserve chasers, ran off to tell his Aunt Minnie. She was impressed that he had managed to make the main team with trying out on a school broom, and told him to go shrink his trunk down, and to then bring it to her office, so that he could give her his broom so that she could give it to him the next morning at breakfast (to keep up the pretenses that it had been at home).

**A/N: Again, the only thanks I get for spending time writing this story is your reviews, so please give me incentive to put up the next chapters by reviewing. Also, don't forget that if you wish to vote for Harry's girlfriend(s) that you need to do so on the poll that is on my profile. You are allowed up to three (3) choices for this poll.**


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